Sex and the Real World

The two readings that I found most interesting were, Judith Butlers “Bodies that Matter,” and Luce Irigarays, “Sexual Difference.” They are both feminist writers that were, to at least some degree, inspired by Freud.

Judith Butler’s main focus during her writing is that, “…the sign of gender, a sign that is not the same as the body that it figures, but that cannot be read without.” Butler is trying to show us that sex and gender is not a choice that we choose. She is trying to clear up the messy scribbled lines between gay, straight, transgender, and bisexuality. She stats, “ Hence, it is not that drag opposes heterosexuality, or that the proliferation of drag will bring down heterosexuality; on the contrary, drag tends to be the illegalization of heterosexuality and its constitutive melancholia.” She is trying to show that it is not a choose that people make, and if they are gay, transgender, or bisexual they are not bringing down heterosexuality.

Irigarays focus is on the idea that man has more power than women. Luce is trying to make a clear standing for women, she wants they to be seen as a women, and not to be associated to men at all. She says, “Sexual difference is probably the issue in our own age which could be our salvation on the intellectual level.” She is trying to show that men are seen as smarter and stronger than women. She is trying to make a difference and make women be equal to a man. She also relates it to religion, “Could it be that this order becomes inverted in sexual difference, such that femininity is experienced as a space that often carries connotations of the depths of night (God being space and light), while masculinity is conceived of in terms of time?” She relates this to religion to show us that men are seen of as the all powerful, they are the most important thing in life.

Both Butler and Iriagaray stemmed out from Freud’s ideas. They are two feminist fighting for what they believe in. Butler believes that everyone is equal, despite their sexual preferences, and Luce believes that a man is no better than a women.